Nice Guys Finish Last
by wordslinger
Summary: The first time he left her they were eleven. His family moved away and Erza cried for days. Never mind the details, Simon decided Jellal was not worth a single one of her tears. Jerza. Complete. **Please see trigger/content warnings inside.


_**Author's Note: This is kind of OOC for Simon. He's not a character I like at all so it wasn't hard to paint him this way. This is super sloppy and I'm sorry. If Simon is your fav, this isn't for you.**_

 _ ****Trigger/content warnings: Rape/non/dub-con**_

* * *

The first time he left her they were eleven. His family moved away and Erza cried for days. Never mind the details, Simon decided Jellal was not worth a single one of her tears. He sat next to her during lunch and recess as she poked her food and tufts of grass with the toes of her shiny black shoes. She never accepted his offers of snack cakes or hard candies but Simon sat with her all the same.

* * *

In middle school Erza played sports and made new friends. Simon attended all her games and cheered for her but she'd only smile up at him in the stands maybe half the time. Most times he didn't think she even noticed he was there – of course, he hadn't told her he'd be going. He just figured she'd assume he'd always be there for her. She didn't.

But that was okay. Erza just had a lot to deal with. Of course she didn't have time to search the stands for him. Not when he parents fought all the time and her dad practically lived out of his office. Athletics were her way of stepping out of her life and into a game. Simon understood. He want to _all_ her games. Because he was loyal.

Erza's first boyfriend kissed her under the mistletoe at a Christmas party. Her cheeks blushed a beautiful shade of pink and she took his hand as he led her back into the crowd of their friends. Simon's vision was clouded with nothing but poinsettia red.

She cried when the idiot broke up with her. Simon stroked her hair and smiled even as her tears soaked his shirt. She was his Erza again.

* * *

Erza's mother took her on a long vacation abroad the summer before they started high school. She returned with a golden tan and... and had her breasts always been so obvious? When she waved at him as the cabbie helped to unpack luggage from his trunk, they jiggled and Simon couldn't even look at her.

Once school started he realized not everyone was embarrassed by Erza's body. Most of his peers stared openly and she didn't seem to be affected at all. Her athletic shorts fit differently and Simon realized he wasn't the only one who noticed.

She teased him about his awkwardness and often asked him about the weather at his height. He didn't mind the jokes because Erza was speaking to him and that was all he wanted. Well... it wasn't all he wanted.

The first time he realized Erza may not be as innocent as he dreamed was in their tenth grade year. He was walking his mother's horrible little dog and glanced up to see her bedroom windows open and the curtains fluttering. A sharp grunt and a high-pitched breath floated from her room and Simon glared up at the window. He'd always imagined she would realize how much he loved her and give him the gift of her virginity.

That night he waited up and watched from his own window until the boy who'd violated his Erza climbed from the ledge and down the tree in her front yard. She didn't close her window even after he left and Simon caught a glimpse of her body through the blue panels of sheer. He lost count of how many times he whispered her name in breathless anguish before succumbing to restless sleep.

* * *

On Erza's seventeenth birthday Simon gifted her a necklace with a tiny angel charm. She represented all the things that were beautiful to him and an angel had seemed appropriate. After a day at the Strauss's pool Erza let him walk her home and he presented the gift at the last second. He wanted himself to be the last thing she'd remember about the day. Erza smiled up at him and pulled her hair over one shoulder as he attached it around her neck.

He thought for sure she shivered when his fingers brushed over her skin. She thanked him with a kiss on the cheek and a wave. Simon tried not to be disappointed. He'd wanted more. However, it was a movement, however glacial, in the right direction.

Jellal returned two weeks later. Simon could barely comprehend the words of explanation coming out of the boy's mouth. Something about his dad's job but Simon didn't care about any of that. All he could see was the love of his life's face lit up like he hadn't seen it in a very long time. She was smiling and Jellal was smiling. Simon scowled.

Simon never saw Erza with any of the other boys that previously held her attention. It was all Jellal all the time now. He gave her rides to school and home again _everyday._ He sat in the very front row at all of her volleyball games while Simon brooded from the back of the crowd. Jellal even had the nerve to knock on her front door instead of sneaking in through her window... and her mother just let him right on in.

He wasn't actually sure what the status of their relationship was as they'd always been disgustingly close as children. Simon hadn't the grasp of romance or sexuality at nine, ten, and eleven but now he wondered. Erza's window was always closed and the curtains drawn.

His question was answered on a Tuedsay night. He would remember it as Tuesday because the garbage trucks came on Wednesdays and it was his job to drag the cans out to the curb. Erza's porch light was out but he could clearly see her wrapped in Jellal's arms. She touched his face and kissed him with a maddening fervor. Simon's patience was tested when Jellal's hand trespassed from her lower back to the tight fabric of the volleyball shorts that covered her rear.

Erza laughed and tugged on his hair.

Simon's grip on the garbage can handle tightened painfully and with a muttered curse he left it sitting in the middle of the driveway. His mother backed into it the next morning.

* * *

The second time he left her was a month after graduation. Jellal had enlisted in the army and Erza was left behind in tears again. This time Simon didn't get angry. He decided he was _glad._ Maybe now Erza would finally see who'd always stayed behind for her.

She didn't.

Erza moved out of her mother's house and in with Mirajane. They enrolled in the university across town and Simon rarely saw her that first semester. He thought of her often, though, and when he finally started classes he realized that Erza had changed again.

She wasn't the outgoing girl she used to be and had given up on athletics. Her classes were at odd hours and Simon had a hard time balancing his work and maintaining a friendship. She didn't try to see him either. He thought she should've tried harder.

* * *

Simon wasn't a partier. He hadn't wanted to go in the first place but Jellal hadn't come home for the holiday and Erza asked him to go. Of course he would go. For Erza he'd do _anything._

The party was loud and mostly dark. She found him near the back of the house and her eyes were wide with a fake smile – not fake. _Intoxicated._ Erza pushed him into the cluster of writhing bodies and danced. He ever consider _not_ grabbing her hips possessively to pull her right against him. She didn't seem to mind so he wrapped his hands around her waist and brushed his nose over the curve of her neck. Erza laughed and he smiled.

He didn't stop her from drinking even though she clearly didn't need more. Simon was a good friend and wouldn't let anyone touch her. No one but him. Jellal had left her behind again and she deserved better than that.

Erza swayed a little too far to the right and slurred her words a little too much for his taste. So he took her home. Not to her home but his. It was late and the building was mostly empty. She clung to his side and exhaled heavily when he helped her into his bed. She looked like she belonged there.

When she whispered his name and begged him not to leave he promised her he wouldn't. When she clumsily wrapped her arms around him and kissed him he didn't prevent it. When she peeled off her sweaty clothes he only watched. He'd waited a very long time to have Erza all to himself so when she pushed against his shoulder and squirmed beneath him... Simon didn't stop.

Erza was soft and hot and wet. She was everything he'd imagined. Eventually her shoves turned to grasps and Simon let go of any lingering doubts. He couldn't tell if she'd finished or not but just before he pulled out she whispered, _Jellal._

The betrayal stung like nothing else. He left her in his bed and drove back to his mother's house to sleep in his old bed. How had everything gone so wrong?

* * *

Erza didn't speak to him again. When she saw him on campus she changed course and avoided him. Simon figured she probably _should._ She'd pursued him after all. Crawled into his bed, took off her clothes and gave him everything he'd ever wanted – even he hadn't been the first guy to have a slice of her cake. He could forgive her that.

She just needed some time.

* * *

Simon didn't know exactly when Jellal came back but when he did it was with a ring and a huge green bag over his shoulder. He saw them and their group celebrating the engagement at the bar he worked part time on weekends. Erza stuck to Jellal's side for most of their evening and wouldn't even look at him.

Only once did Jellal approach the bar. Simon glared down at him and asked for his order. Jellal smiled darkly and said,

"I know what you did and you haven't gotten away with a goddamn thing. Erza doesn't even want to think about you again and that's why you're not in pieces or jail. If we'd known you worked here we'd have gone somewhere else but Erza is too kind to ruin Mirajane's party for us. Two Jack and Cokes please. Easy on the rocks."

* * *

Jellal would leave her again eventually. That's just what he does. Jellal leaves and Simon stays. So he decided to wait.


End file.
